the hudson river, two years ago...

This part of the Walkthrough covers the Oil Tanker Level. This is the first and shorter part of
Metal Gear Solid 2, and half of that level was playable in the Demo for Metal Gear Solid 2.

Solid Snake investigates with the help of Otacon on Clues on a new Metal Gear beeing on the Tanker.
He is expected by Ocelot already and there are also other people on the Tanker making it harder
for him, there are russian Soldiers under supervision of General Gurlukovich and his daughter Olga is also
on board.

Help Snake finding proof that there is a new type of Metal Gear on the Oiltanker.

This Walkthrough is written for the normal dificulty.

Throughout this solution you will here and there find some boxes within the text, here is an explanation what
they mean.

Cutscenes, and there are a lot of them in Metal Gear Solid 2, are always summarized in
a box like this. Or maybe a longer paragraph, depending on how much I want to write about nongameplay things...

Interesting things you can discover and fun things to do on the game, and there are also a lot of these,
are always in a box like this.

And a last small note before we start, when I write about directions you have to move to I tend
to use just the cardinal direction on the map (or the abbreviation of this cardinal direction).

When I write go to the north this means go to the top of the map.

So you made it through the introduction (within the game as well as in this walkthrough)
and you are ready to rock steady. Your items and controls are explained to you by Otacon
(and by me on all the other pages before this one, the table of content is to the right...),
the story is about to explain itself while you play, by now we only know
we are not alone on the Tanker and we are after Metal Gear...

Aft Deck

And here is where it starts, Snake takes cover behind some rope winches. Take a look at
the area with and you will see that there is a railing ahead and
above your current position. Behind the railing is a soldier on guard. Knock him out with your
M9 Tranquillizer gun. He will fall asleep sooner or later.

Now you can either get into the Tanker quickly to fullfill your first task, which is reaching the bridge
to find out where the Tanker is headed, or you get comfortable with your surroundings, grab lots of
useful items and find the beauty in the game. When you want to infiltrate the Tanker immediately
read on at Aft2, when you want to discover some more, which I recommend
you to do, then just continue reading.

After knocking out the first soldier go to the northeast, step up to the small pedestal and climb over the
obstacle to pick up some Chaff Grenades.

From the Chaff Grenade location you can aim at and knock out the soldier ahead on almost the same height.
After you did this jump over the railing and get into the northeasternmost corner on the lowest deck level.
There are some PENTAZEMIN pills to grab.

Now get up to the guard you just knocked out and in the northeast of this deck level are some BANDAGES behind the
last of the small boats. Pick them up and you can get inside the Tanker through the door right here. Or you run around
on the outside some more and grab more goodies.
As items are always good to have I explain what else there is to discover on the outside of the Tanker in the text right below
here, if you want to get inside now and skip a lot of running and shooting (and fun) then read on at
Deck B - crew's quaters - starboard. See you there!

So, now we want to grab the items on the westside of the ship. You can reach the westside by going up another set of
stairs and running to the other side of the Tanker via the walkway, but as it is harder to hit the guards that are on the
lower levels from up there you should go back to the bottom deck level. If you think you have what it takes, take the upper
path but I'll explain the path from the deck level.
So we continue to the northwest of the Tanker on deck level, climb up the stairs onto the small pedestal
and take cover. There is no item to collect here but you get into a good position to shoot the guard here.
Get rid of him, jump over the railing and get into the very northwest on the lowest deck level. Pick up the RATION here.
Rations are always useful.
Get back to the door behind the pedestal and position yourself in front of it. Don't get distracted by Otacon's
call, he only tells you basic info, but at least you find out about his Codec Frequency,
then open the door with and finally get inside.

Deck-A, Crew's quaters, Port

The path straight to the north is not the correct path as you cannot get through that door. So you better
take the path to the east and then south, when you reached the southend get through the electronic door
into the locker room and scan through the lockers of the crew (they are all dead already so it doesn't matter to
them anymore). You will find a RATION in the locker on the lower left and ammunition for the M9 in the locker
on the lower right.

Inside the locker in the upper left you can find a nice poster of a nice girl.
When you take a picture of here Snake is happy and later Otacon too.

Now get away from the lockers and take care of the soldier on patrol in the eastern part of the hallway of the Crew's quaters.

It should not be that hard to knock him out with tranquillizers, just wait until he shows his back to you and then shoot at him.
You can practice some advanced gameplay mechanics here, press against the wall and look around the corner ()
and then lean into the hallway from this position and shoot him ().

When you did that get ready for the next part.

Deck-A, Crew's lounge, starboard

Walk down the stairs here to pick up a STUNN GRENADE, then get back up.
Now peek inside the Crew's Lounge from this hallway and use your radar to time your attack right.
You can get rid of both these guards from this position. Use your radar to see one of the soldiers
facing you (but not directly as you are behind some corners) while the other guy walks away from you.
Once the guard walking away is away far enough shoot him and hope the other guard won't notice him falling down.
So the other guard comes into your line of fire sooner or later too and looks away from you. He doesn't look away from you
forever so you have to be fast, a quick headshot handles this situation perfectly.

Now you can look around the Crew's Lounge without any interruption, behind the bar you can find more ammunition for the M9
and there is a RATION at the couches.

MGS2 is very detailled, shoot at the huge glass window in the bar and see what happens.

Now we want to get closer to our first small mission, that is reaching the bridge and finding out where the
Tanker is headed, so get up the stairs on the lounge and exit through the starboard door as the other door
is locked.

Deck-B, Crew's quaters, starboard

At this place it doesn't matter which way you run around, the Deck B is a circuit and you have to get to the
port side (westside) somehow. On both pathes you meet one soldier you have to get rid of, but it's not that hard
but rather fun.
On the lower southern path you find an additional RATION and when you step out to the stairs you run into AMMUNITION for the M9.
There is also AMMUNITION for the USP to be found on the lower path, but as you don't have this weapon yet this is not that
important at this point in the game. So get to the port side and step up the stairs.

Deck-C, Crew's quaters, Port

Here Snake runs into the first surveillance Camera, but it is easy to dodge that cam by
pressing against the wall and sneaking through under it.

Next to the stairs is a locker with a box of CHAFF GRENADES inside. After picking these up
get up the stairs.

Deck-D, Crew's quaters

And now we enter a highly secured area. Guards everywhere, cameras and lasertriggered Semtex, but Otacon explains
more on that.

At first get to the storage room in the northeast. In here you can shoot at almost everything and play around with
it, and you find M9 AMMUNITION and also the
BOX 1.
As soon as you get close to the M9 AMMUNITION a soldier enters the storage room, but he
is already distracted by music he listens to and falls asleep easily. Camouflaged with the
box (equip with ) you might make it past him but he likes to wake up
when you need it the least, it is better to shoot his leg or foot through under the shelf.
Or walk around the shelf and hold him up and/or shoot him.

Leave the storage room of the Tanker now and get into the kitchen on the west of Deck-D.
Of course you can't just run in there, but you have to watch the guard on your radar and once he
turns his back on you, you get inside and get rid of him.
Behind the counter there is a RATION. Under the tables are AMMUNITION for the M9 and the USP, right now
you can only use the M9 AMMUNITION. After collecting all this it is time to sneak past the security camera.
Luckily it is very short sighted and you can pass it by walking along the southern wall up to the door.
Now be carful, take a look at what the sentinel on the other side of the door does. When he can't
see you get through the door and walk up the stairs to the bridge of the Tanker.

Deck-E, the bridge

A lot of russian Kasatkas fly towards the Tanker and bring in even more soldiers. Now
there is even more action on the Tanker.
Snake and Otacon find out about the destination of the Tanker, it is somewhere in the middle of the atlantic ocean.
Right when Otacon wants you to take care of your actual mission Snake hears a sound and sees
Olga Gurlukovich. Of course he follows her and fights a fight against her.

So follow Olga Gurlukovich to the outside and face her on the upper deck.

Navigational Deck, port Wing

Lots of cutscenes are ahead, watch them, they are made pretty good, I don't write all
that much about them here, because you can't change any outcome. And after that
you have to fight Olga Gurlukovich.